320 Degrees
by Chopstick with Wings
Summary: “All I want to do is bake cakes!” I use to say all the time as a kid. Oh, why did I have to be so naïve! If only it were just the heat from the ovens I had to be careful of! Roxas, why didn’t you go to a normal college? AkuRoku RiSo Zemyx


**A/N:** A new story?! Yes! Sorry to all the readers for Voice, It'll continue but probably not anytime soon. The next chapter is half finished, but I lost inspiration for it.  
However! Ive had this idea in my head for a while, and started writing this chapter a few months ago, and just finished it! So, please read it and I hope you enjoy it!

Its mostly an AkuRoku story, the other pairings will have major parts too!

**Title: 320 Degrees**  
**Author**: WingedChopstick  
**Pairing**: A/R, S/R, Z/D, and more  
**Description**: "All I want to do is bake cakes!" I use to say all the time as a kid. Oh, why did I have to be so naïve?! If only it were just the heat from the ovens I had to be careful of! Roxas, why didn't you go to a normal college?

Chapter One: The Sweetest Moment

* * *

Well, this is it. Goodbye old, decrepit, apartment from nowhere, and hello …New, decrepit apartment.

Well, at least you're _somewhere._

"I hope…" I mumbled to myself as I attempted to fish out the keys from my bag. The keychain the complex had given me was beyond anything my pocket could hold, so of course I just mindlessly threw it into my backpack.

Yeah, bad decision on my part. Especially considering my backpack contained everything from a laptop to a toothbrush, with an MP3 player thrown in there for an added measure of crap.

I mean really, who gives you an apartment key with an ancient eight-inch rusted skeleton key for a keychain?! Sure, Eventually I found it wedged between my notebook and the bottom of my bag and pulled it out, but still! It's ridiculous. But now for the real challenge of the day, Finding my apartment in this sad, sea of buildings, oh goodie.

Right, I guess I should explain where I am. At the moment I am standing in the parking lot of a certain Betwixt Alley Apartments. Also known as, the location of my new living quarters.

See, I just moved here from a place you really don't need to know about, in order to go to the school of my dreams. The only problem is, this ' school of my dreams' doesn't come with the 'tuition of my dreams'.

In basic barebone English; I, Roxas, am Poor.

Thus,I find myself where I am, a rundown apartment complex for financially deprived teens.

Ironically, it's a step up.

"Okay..where the hell _is_ my apartment?" I yelled, lost from my wandering.

I had gone up a flight of stairs, that much I knew, but if only that explained how I had ended up on the third story in front of about 20 different coloured doors.

Behold the mysterious mysteries of my life.

Or my habit of getting lost.

'It's the one on the end,well..not the end end,but like..towards the end,yeah. I think it's a darker colour door…' The manager's voice repeated in my head.

"Oh yeah..reeeally helpful there…you might as well have just told me it was somewhere in one of the buidings!"

Eventually I stopped my search and just stood in front of some random door. I could knock, and ask for help. Maybe the person wouldn't call me a punk or throw something at me! Hey, there's a 60 chance…

I looked at a purple door in front of me, yeah _purple_ door, and read the apartment's address in big rusted numbers.

"318…Well 318, here's hoping you're a nice old lady with cookies ..." I took a deep breath and gave a few good solid knocks on the door. "Hello?…"I stopped and waited a few seconds, but not hearing anything , decided to knock again. "…Um, excuse me, is anyone there?" I asked loudly before knocking one last time.

Still there was no answer. I let out a disappointed sigh and resituated my bag on my shoulder. "Um, okay Ms.318…guess you aren-...wait a second!" I came to a sudden realization and smacked my forehead. "Roxas you're an idiot!" The apartment numbers! Why hadn't I just checked to see if the key had a number on it?

Pulling out the giant keychain once more, sure enough it revealed the magic number '318'.

Great! I have found my new home in all of its purple doored, glory!

Okay, I am really hoping this isn't some kind of omen.

Without wasting any more time I quickly shoved my key into the lock and opened the door.

A long creaking noise slowly revealed a white-ish walled room, probably the living room. Immediately I threw my stuff down into a pile and began to explore.

Straight ahead of the living room was the kitchen, and then to the right was the bedroom and bathroom. Sure,everything was covered in an inch thick layer of dust and grime, but besides that it was pretty good for a cheap one bedroom apartment.

Exhausted from the day I went back to my pile of junk and plopped down. Pulling out my mobile, the light shone a bright 10:56 pm in the otherwise dark room.

I yawned and stretched my arms up high into the air. Tommorrow was the day I'd been both dreading and dying to begin. My first day of school.

Lazily I unzipped backpack and pulled out a throw, remember me saying it had everything? Yeah, I don't lie about these things.

Using the rest of my pack as a pillow I wrapped myself up in the small blanket and closed my eyes. I could get the rest of the stuff out my car in the morning.

* * *

"BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!"

"Beep yourself! You friggin'-" I threw the source of the noise against what my guess would be, a wall. Hearing it stop I suddenly realized that was probably my alarm for school.

"Ack! Hoshit!" I yelled scrambling up from the floor. Of course, given my lack of poise and grace in the morning, that only led to my painful demise as I tripped on my blanket and came crashing to the ground below.

"Fuck..why does this always happen on the first day of school?" I groaned, standing up.  
"I'm in college now! This really shouldn't be happening anymore!"

Quickly I went over to my bag and pulled out my toothbrush, only to proceed to the actually brushing of course. Generally I find the morning routine boring, I mean, trip out of bed, brush teeth, drink coffee, maybe grab some toast, realize your late, trip again, and then leave for school…really, what's interesting about that?

So I'll save you the pain and just say I skipped the coffee and toast, being its all still in my car. Which by the way, I am heading to unload now.

Unloading is really easy. I mean, I have…a suitcase. Oh, and a trunk, but basically just a suitcase. I mean, the trunk is, well, you'll see what the trunk is soon enough. However, right now all my clothes are in the giant blue suitcase in front of me, and seeing as I'm heading to school, the clothes take priority.

I yanked it out of the back and popped up the handle, gotta love rolling suitcases. They come in so handy when you're dragging 80 pounds of stuff over long distances. See, I had left my car parked a few lots over, As you may or may not recall, I was too lazy to go retrieve once I found my apartment last night. Thus, here I am, thanking the inventor of these magical suitcases.

Anyways, I lug it up the two flights of stairs and unlock the purple door. The second I'm inside I fling the case open and pull out my uniform, still wrapped in its plastic.

"I wonder if I'm supposed to put it on there or not.." I mumble to myself before opting to make room for it my bag and just wear something else to the school.

Quickly I grab a pair of jeans and somewhat wrinkled blue T-shirt and slip into them. That should do okay, I mean, I have a uniform to wear once I'm actually there, right?

Glancing at my mobile now lying helplessly at the base of the opposite wall, I wince at recalling the morning previous events.

"One of these days I'm going to end up breaking you Filo, I just know it." I said as I went to pick it up, yeah I named my phone, wanna make something of it? Anyways, I picked it up and checked the screen to make it sure wasn't broken.

Of course, that was when I realized what time it was. And proceeded to freak out.

"7:48?! 7:48?! HOW THE HELL CAN IT BE 7:48 ALREADY?!"

Yeah ,that would be me screaming and running around my apartment like a maniac.

"My class starts in twelve minutes! TWELVE MINUTES! aaagggh!" With lightning fast speed I sling my bag over my shoulder and fly out the door, locking it of course, and ran to my car. Imagine the vwooshing sound as the door slammed shut behind me and you might get an idea of what it was actually like.

Before I know it my key is slipping into the ignition and I am pulling out of Betwixt Alley on my way to my first day of school at HBICA.

* * *

You know, it really would have helped if I had known where I was going. I never knew one city could have so many one-way roads!

So, I had finally found my way to the school, but now it was 8:20 am. My class started twenty minutes ago and I still had to find it! Gee Roxas, great way to begin your new career, be late for your first day of class.

Yeah, currently I am running through the campus in a desperate attempt to find the Dawn Building, Classroom 12a. Obviously, I haven't had any luck yet.

The fall wind was just starting to come in, sending a pre-winter chill down my spine as I passed the same oak tree for the third time. Why didn't I think of bringing a jacket? Or a map?

Quickly growing tired of this I decided to take a sharp left down a small between-building-path I had seen a few minutes ago.

Split seconds later I came crashing to the ground for the third time this morning.

"S-sorry" I apologized reaching up to rub the back of my head. "I guess I didn't see you-" I stopped mid sentence, because that, that was when I saw him walk right on past me. When I saw a giant mess of unnaturally red hair pulled into a ponytail on top of the head of a well 6 feet tall person, walk right on past me.

Before I had a chance to try and say anything more, he was gone.

That fucking jerk!

I stood back up, and brushed myself off, realizing I couldn't do anything more. That and, I was still late for class.

"_Shit_" I cursed as a turned to pull out my mobile. That was when I suddenly realized the bronze plaque on the side of the building.

Inscribed into it was a sun, and none other than, "DAWN".

With a sudden burst of determination I flew threw that building faster than the gingerbread man, past classrooms and students, teachers and closed doors alike.

Eventually I came to my classroom and threw open the door, breathing heavily from my sprint. In what seemed like slow motion the entire class turned and stared, and sadly, it wasn't the teacher their gaping mouths were directed at.

"…Ahem" I heard the teacher clear his throat and with a freshly pink from embarrassment face I slowly closed the door.

"S-sorry…" I nervously apologized.

"You're Roxas I presume." He said, almost monotone.

"Yes, sir."

"Go put on your Uniform, Roxas."

"Yes, sir." I said, and left the room.

Shutting the door once again, I turned back to the hall I had just run down and let out a breath of relief. Though, really none could say I had a reason to, considering I was still very late for class and had to return eventually.

"Why?" I whined, scanning the doors down the hall for a restroom to change into. "Why does this have to happen to me? Just for once can't _I_ be the kid sitting in class staring at the crazy looking late person?"

That was supposed to be one of those inner-monologue things, the kind that fall upon deaf ears should anyone hear it, but sadly those hopes came crashing down when I heard…

"Tch, No." from behind me.

Slowly turning around I saw a boy, no taller than myself, with spiky brunette hair smiling at me. To be quite honest, it was a little weird.

"What?" I replied dumbly, in secret hopes that he as the kind that would just shrug and keep on walking.

"Of course you aren't one of those people!" Well, there goes that theory. With what must have been a horridly confused expression, I turned around to better face the boy. "I mean, you don't look like the 'one of the crowd' people, ya know?" He continued on.

"Oh…um, thanks?" I said.

"Not a problem! I'm Sora by the way" The boy smiled and extended a hand. "and you are?"

"Er, Roxas" I answered, shaking his hand, grateful for the first sign of friendship I had received since getting here. He nodded with a content grin.

"So, Roxas,I take it you were late for class?" My face flashed pink at remembering the traumatic event just a few minutes ago. He just laughed.

"Haha! Yeah, I figured as much. Its okay, I kinda did the same thing." He gave a nervous sounding chuckle, that was when I realized he wasn't in his uniform either.

"You mean…"

"Yeah, the reason the class probably had the reaction they did was because I had just done the same exact thing seconds before you came in." Sora, confessed, his cheeks becoming tinged with a pink blush.

I had to laugh. It was crazy, here I was on my first day of class, and I was going to be even later than I was before because I ran into the kid who was late before me!

I guess Sora must have realized it too, because he started laughing shortly after me.

"haha! This cannot be good" The brunette stated between laughs. I had to nod in agreement.

"Come on, haha…lets get changed so we don't miss anything more than we already have,Sora." I said once I had managed to calm down a bit. He let out another laugh and nodded.

It wasn't long before we made our way to the restroom's stalls and changed into the crisp, white uniforms. Sora came out first, and looked like he was trying to fix his spikes, I have to mention just how much he was failing. I came up behind him and glanced at my own appearance in the mirror, to say the least it was a bit weird. Seeing me in the uniform I had imagined for the past 2 years, it was strange. Not because it felt like a dream or anything, but because I had left the house so quickly I forgot to comb my hair, so my head just didn't seem to match up.

Sora glanced over just as I attempted to flatten a stray clump of hair and gave a laugh.

"No, keep it that way!" I heard him suggest as he motioned to the clump that had just sprung back out of place.

"You have to be joking!" He just grinned and shook his head.

"No! Really! I mean it, Roxas! It kinda suits you, ya know?!" At that point I seriously thought he was joking. But of course, I was proven horribly wrong when he pulled out a mini can of hairspray and surrounded my head with its toxic mist.

He was like a little hairspray demon, smiling like mad as I was coughing from a sudden lack of oxygen and forced to face my chemical doom.

"Sora! –cough- what are you doing?!" I protested, waving my hand around to get rid of the spray.

"Making sure you don't ruin your 'new look' of course!"

"Sora you little –ack!" As a warning, when hairspray is surrounding you, don't open your mouth too wide, or inhale too deeply. You will choke.

"Oops! Sorry Roxas,but we're late for class! Guess you'll just have to deal with it!" He giggled. In almost a sing song, 'you can't do anything about it', taunting voice.

That was when I learned; you do not mess with Sora. For he has ways of getting what he wants, and no matter what you do, he will win.

"Sora!" I yelled, chasing him down the hall to the classroom as I tried to smoosh down my hair to no avail.

He just laughed all the way to the door, where we suddenly stopped in our tracks.

Sora had opened the door. It was like a horrible case of dejavu, and I was standing in the middle of it.

No matter what the circumstance, or who the teacher is, being late is one of the most awkward things that can happen. All the students stare at you, and you just know you interrupted something important.

And now, I had experienced it twice in the past 20 minutes.

"Ahem…Boys?" I turned my head to see the teacher, staring at us with his arms crossed. I swallowed nervously.

"Sorry Sir! I ran into Roxas and we got lost on our way back!" It was like hearing some angelic voice saving my sorry ass.

There was a brief pause before the teacher nodded, "Very well, take your seats. I expect you two to be ontime nexr class, and get notes for you had missed."

"Yes Cloud!" I blinked, and turned to Sora.

"Cloud?" I mouthed questioningly. He just nodded and led the way to our seats.

I took my seat and glanced back to the front of the room. My reason?

This 'Cloud', i.e. our Professor, looked like a- ..well…

There's a lot of things, but what comes to mind first is cross between an androgynous model for hot topic and a happy home-stay mom.

Minus the Happy.

"Okay Class, now that EVERYONE is here, I just have this to say…"

Great, time for the Teacher Introduction where he tells us all to "do our best' and take good notes and we'll all do juuust fine. I rested my head on the hand prepared for the speech.

"…I don't give a shit about most of you. "

Cough, cough! Excuse me?!

"Chances are you signed up for Culinary School as an 'Easy way out' of an ordinary College Education. Heh, Man do I feel sorry for you."

I glanced back at Sora to make sure this wasn't some shitty daydream. Sure enough, his eyes were wide and his face looked as if he just saw a hawk eat a hedgehog.  
"So for you students who don't drop out, I'm warning you to be prepared. Flour in your eyes is the least of your troubles, it'll be found in much more uncomfortable places unless you listen and bake like a guy is coming after your life with a sword ready to steal what's left of your existence."

I think I saw his eye twitch just then.

After a few awkward seconds Cloud cleared his throat. Tch, as if that would make his freakout disappear from our impressionable minds.

Nope, he's psycho.

"So, today I'm going to start you out with a simple test to see where your baking knowledge lies best. Grab your table partner and you'll have 2 hours to attempt to wow me with your confectionary skills." Cloud then pulled out a bird shaped timer. "Go."

"Come on Roxas! " Sora yelled as he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the closest oven. "So what are your strengths?! I mean, I can bake, but that's a given, we need to win!"

"But its not a competition Sora."

"Everything's a competition Roxas! How can you say you're the best at something if you aren't better at it than someone! You cant! "

I simply gave him a blank face. "Everyone in this school is crazy, aren't they?"

"Yes."

"…"

"Now grab your ingredients you pansy and don't stop cooking till you bleed!"

"Are you related to Cloud?!"

"No. Now BAKE!"

And thus I began my two hours of baking hell. Well, okay it wasn't all that bad. Once I convinced Sora I wanted to win and knew what I wanted to do, he actually let me be, and dare I say it, listened to me when I told him to do something! Go figure! Between the two of us we decided to bake a 2-tier cake (2 hours isn't really enough time for a 3 tier). He would make the cake itself, a dark chocolate batter with a blueberry buttercream icing between the layers. I would sculpt and decorate it.  
So, he put the pans in the oven and I sketched out what it would look like, and made and coloured the icings. Sora rolled out some fondant and I cut out the shapes I needed. By the time the cake was done cooking we let it cool and then I cut the pieces on the sides and edges to give it form. Sora put it together and iced it, and then I put the fondant on. By that time we only had 30 minutes to decorate it, so I painted on the coloured icing and put the fondant cut outs on.

So, that was that. Now Sora and I are standing next to our cake and waiting for Cloud.

I have to say, it's a kick-ass cake.

The layers are cut so it almost looks like it's tipping different ways. The icing is a white that fades into a dark blue at the top. Swirls go around it in a lighter blue, almost like clouds and then at the very top is the face of a clock in a crisp white fondant.

"Ew..look at that one Roxas!"

I glanced over at the poor students cake Sora was pointing to. Their cake had to have had some kind of chemical reaction or something. Because, cakes really shouldn't bubble that much. Especially once its out of the oven.

Ew.

There was a sigh to my right and I turned to see Cloud heading towards us from another students area.

"Okay, please tell me you guys actually know how to bake and if you don't, I beg you don't make me eat whatever it is that you-…you made that?"

I glanced back to the cake behind me and nodded. Sora was grinning like a mad squirrel behind me.

"Dare I say it, I'm impressed." Cloud crossed his arms, and I think I may have actually seen a smirk grace his lips. Maybe a small smile, but that might be stretching it."So, go ahead, tell me what it is." Sora quickly jumped on the explanation. Not skipping any 'delectable detail', he made our cake seem like an edible 3 million dollar sports car.

It was a little scary actually, but Cloud seemed impressed so, Yay, Sora.

"Hm, Good Job guys." He said simply, and then I watched him walk away.

That was the end of it. No, seriously. After Cloud visited 2 more pairs we sat back at our seats and he said "You all severely disappoint me. Get out of my classroom."

The students started to file out quickly, and Sora and I got up from our seats. However, Just as I grabbed my bag I heard a sharp,

" Sora, Roxas. You two stay after class."  
so, we did.

Once the last student was out, Cloud walked over to our table and slammed his hands on the shiny granite top with an echoing, thud! Sora and I jumped a little. Then, we saw probably the scariest thing on the entire day. Cloud, our unhappy, culinary professor from hell, smile. Very widely, and very demonically, Cloud smiled.

"I have a proposition for the two of you, are you up for it?"

* * *

Do you ever get the feeling your whole life may change in an instant? That, everything you knew before, and all of your hopes and dreams for the future may just change in a millisecond? That one event could have such a drastic impact on your life?

Well, that was that moment for me.

Roxas, meet the Hollow Bastion Institute of Culinary Arts.

You have been warned.

* * *

**A/N**: Well, There ya go! Hope you liked it, and if you did please leave a review! And don't worry! Axel will make his grand appearance in the next chapter! –CW

320 Degrees is the Melting Point of Sugar


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